Herman Cyril McNeile

“ He saw one man--a funny little, pimply man with spectacles, of the type he would have expected to wring his hands and wail--take off his boots with the utmost composure, and place them neatly side by side on the deck.
Then a large, healthy individual in a fur coat came past him demanding to see the Captain, and protesting angrily when he was told to go to hell.
"It's preposterous, sir," he said to Vane; "absolutely preposterous. I insist on seeing the Captain. . .."
"Don't be more of a fool than you can help," answered Vane rudely. "It's not the Captain's 'At home' day. . . ." ”

“ What a farce it all was; man thinking he could struggle against science. Science ruled the universe--aeroplanes, gas, torpedoes. And it served men right for inventing them; they should have been more careful. The smile on the dead German airman's face, as he lay on the ground near Poperinghe, floated before him, and he nodded his head portentously.
"You're right, old bean," he croaked. "The man I want to meet is the fool who doesn't think it's funny . . . ."
And then Vane crossed the Valley of the Shadow, as far as a man may cross and yet return. ”

“ He argued it out carefully in his mind, unconsciously talking aloud, and when he had decided what he was going to do he nodded his head in complete agreement. And then he laughed--a strange, croaking laugh and apostrophised a gull which was circling above his head. "How damn funny, old bird," he said still chuckling; "how damn funny. . . ." The humour of the situation had struck him suddenly. After the long years in France to be drowned like a bally hen inside a coop! . . . ”

“ Then with slow, measured steps he began to pace up and down the deck. The majority of the passengers were sitting muffled up in deck chairs, but, unlike the Boulogne boat, there was plenty of room to walk; and Vane was of the particular brand who always think more easily when they move. ”

“ He must keep his head and save his strength--he must. . . . Any boat coming up would be attracted to the scene of the disaster by the gulls, he repeated to himself over and over again--and then they would see him.
He took a fresh grip of the chair and swam a few strokes to keep warm. That was the next point that came into his mind--how long could he last before, numbed with the cold, his grip on the chair would relax and he would only have his life-belt to rely on? He must not get cold, he must swim steadily and quietly to keep up his circulation--always keeping near the gulls. ”

“ The smoking-room was occupied by a party of six young Irishmen, all of them of military age, who announced freely for the benefit of anyone who cared to listen--and it was not easy to avoid doing so--that they were Sinn Feiners. ”